Reforming the police: from local service to state police?

IN June 1993 the government published proposals for the structure of the police under the title Police Reform: A Police Service for the Twenty-first Century. I Introducing the White Paper, the then Home Secretary made reference to the need to bring police work ‘up-to-date’, by strengthening the role of local police authorities and providing greater freedom for chief officers to manage the service. He also made clear that the government wanted to play its part by setting key police priorities. This reflected aview that the police spent too little time fighting crime, which needed to be a clear priority for all police forces. Following on from the White Paper, an internal review was established to identlfy ‘core’ and ‘ancillary’ police duties. The objective was to identify those ancillary tasks which might be given to private security companies where that was appropriate. This would enable the police service to focus on core crime-fighting functions.*